The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the largest privately-owned crude terminal in the US, paused deliveries ahead of the storm after forecasts indicated possible impacts to its operational areas.

LOOP’s marine terminal is located in open waters about 29km off the shores of Louisiana, while Port Fourchon is its land base.

The Louisiana port is the only US deepwater terminal capable of offloading supertankers.

It handles about 10% to 15% of the country’s domestic oil, 10% to 15% of the nation’s imports of foreign oil, and is also connected to about half of the US refining capacity, according to the Port Fourchon website.

It services 90% of the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater oil production.

As of yesterday, more than 95% of US Gulf of Mexico oil production was suspended, representing about 1.74 million barrels per day of output, according to the offshore regulator.

The Gulf supplies about 17% of the nation’s oil.

Ida intensified faster than officials predicted, prompting evacuations along the Gulf Coast and business closures.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Saturday warned it could be the state’s worst direct hit since the 1850s.

Other ports in southern Louisiana, including Houma and the Port of New Orleans, were closed yesterday.

In Mississippi, the ports in Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula and the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway were closed.

LOOP was formed in 1972 and became a limited liability company in 1996 as a joint venture between Marathon Pipe Line, Shell Oil Company and a unit of Valero Energy.